{"id":590546,"date":"2026-04-17T22:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590546\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T22:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:12:11","slug":"chet-holmgren-extremely-excited-for-2026-nba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590546\/","title":{"rendered":"Chet Holmgren ‘extremely excited’ for 2026 NBA playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> hope to become back-to-back NBA champions, they can’t rely on last year’s formula to repeat the same results. It’d be like taking a test at the beginning of the semester and expecting the final to lay out the same way.<\/p>\n

Running it back with mostly the same group, the Thunder will likely need to rely on different sets of characters to bring home another Larry O’Brien trophy. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> will do what he usually does as a walking 30-point machine, but the supporting cast might need to tune things up differently.<\/p>\n

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One way to do that? Chet Holmgren<\/a>. Of his three playoff runs with the Thunder, this is the best he’s looked entering Round 1. In 2024, he was a rookie center, learning the ropes. In 2025, he had to learn on the fly to play at around 70% capacity after missing three months with a hip fracture.<\/p>\n

Now, Holmgren is playing the best basketball of his career. He’s on his way to first-time honors like All-NBA and an All-Defensive Team spot. He should also finish as runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year \u2014 only trailing Victor Wembanyama<\/a> in that category.<\/p>\n

If the Thunder want to win another NBA championship, they likely need Holmgren to be Gilgeous-Alexander’s new Robin. That was Jalen Williams<\/a>‘ role last year. But injuries have limited him to just 33 games this past regular season. He’ll need more time to sharpen his skills \u2014 specifically with his outside jumper. Until then, the seven-footer should be able to carry the load on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely excited. Last year was very challenging. I don\u2019t think I felt the best physically. I feel really good right now,” Holmgren said. “I’m excited to get out there and play. Get this thing going.”<\/p>\n

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The Thunder saw Holmgren save his best basketball of last season for their NBA playoff run. This year, he should be able to add more to his plate. The 23-year-old has been on a roll. Unlike previous years, his outside jumper has remained sharp entering this stage of the season. He’s shot 39.7% from 3 on 3.4 attempts since the NBA All-Star break.<\/p>\n

If that carries over to the NBA playoffs, the Thunder suddenly gain somebody else who can pop off for an efficient 20-plus points. It won’t be off isolation looks and breaking down defenders with his handle, per se \u2014 like Gilgeous-Alexander \u2014 but the seven-footer is OKC’s best play-finisher as a lob threat and catch-and-shoot weapon.<\/p>\n

“I’ve played two years in the playoffs now, so I’ve learned so much from just those experiences. I’m excited to have more experiences,” Holmgren said. “Get to learn from them. Whether I’ve played in 10 years of playoffs or just two, as I have so far, I’m always going to be learning and gaining experience.”<\/p>\n

It’ll be a big playoff run for Holmgren. The advanced metrics and winning rate paint him as one of the NBA’s best 15 players. And while conventional wisdom is still playing catch-up to that, the general NBA-sphere can finally learn just how great he is with another playoff run that ends in a second championship in four seasons.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Chet Holmgren ‘extremely excited’ for 2026 NBA playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Oklahoma City Thunder hope to become back-to-back NBA champions, they can’t rely on last year’s formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[16733,7625,355,15808,257828,6402,6407,99,32090],"class_list":{"0":"post-590546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-chet-holmgren","9":"tag-jalen-williams","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-championship","12":"tag-nba-playoff","13":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","14":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}